Wednesday, June 11, 2014

About the book:

It is 1910 and Maria, a
talented young girl from the East end of London, is employed to work as a
seamstress for the royal family. As an attractive girl, she soon
catches the eye of the Prince of Wales and she in turn is captivated by
his glamour and intensity.

But careless talk causes trouble and
soon Maria’s life takes a far darker turn. Disbelieved and dismissed she
is thrown into a mental asylum, shut away from the real world with only
her needlework for company.

Can a beautiful quilt, discovered many years later, reveal the truth behind what happened to Maria?

About this author

:

Liz Trenow's family have been
silk weavers for nearly three hundred years, and she grew up in the
house next to the mill in Suffolk, England, which still operates today,
weaving for top-end fashion houses and royal commissions.

It was
the recollections of Liz's father about how, during the Second World
War, the mill worked night and day weaving parachute silk, that inspired
her first novel, "The Last Telegram". It is the story of Lily Verner, a
young woman who has to grow up very quickly and learn to manage the
stresses and trials behind the Home Front in the Second World War.

The
love story at the heart of the novel is also based on real life events
and characters. In 1939, when war was imminent, Liz's family were so
concerned about the plight of their many Jewish friends and business
colleagues in Europe that travel to England and work at the mill. One of
them fell in love with a local girl and, after internment in Australia
and fighting for the Allies in Burma, returned to work at the mill,
married and had a family, and lived a long and happy life. Unfortunately
the story in "The Last Telegram" is not quite so straightforward!

Liz says: 'It is a coming of age story, a tale of love and loss, and how we come to terms with the mistakes we make.

My Take:

Caroline finds a quilt while she is cleaning out her mother's attic, and the story takes off from there. This is a very tender story
told from two perspectives, in two different time periods. The pieces of
the story fall together like a great puzzle. It definitely tugs at your heartstrings.